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Orval Faubus, 76, Says He’d Like to Be Governor 7th Time

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Associated Press

Orval E. Faubus, whose use of National Guard troops in a bid to preserve public school segregation almost 30 years ago put him in the history books, announced today that he will run for governor again.

Faubus, 76, a Democrat who served six terms as governor, the most in Arkansas history, and left office in 1966, released a statement urging higher priority to education.

On Sept. 2, 1957, Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to keep blacks out of Little Rock’s Central High School after a federal appeals court upheld the school board’s desegregation plan in a 1956 suit filed by blacks.

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President Dwight D. Eisenhower then sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, nationalized the state National Guard and on Sept. 26, nine blacks entered Central.

Faubus retired to Houston in the late 1970s, telling a reporter that he moved there because of the medical facilities. His second cardiac pacemaker was implanted in December, 1980.

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